Decision-Making on Hatem Zidi

Stop Confusing Metrics with Quality

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Quality is subjective.
Architecture is judgemental.
So how on earth do we measure it?

Every architecture review, every design workshop, every committee meeting eventually hits the same wall. Someone asks: “But is this actually good?”

We pretend the answer lives in metrics. Response times. Availability. Coupling scores. Maturity models. Dashboards filled with comforting colours. We convince ourselves that if the numbers are green, the architecture is good.

That is the uncomfortable reality: half the time, those numbers are illusions. They tell part of the story.

I’ve witnessed perfectly green dashboards collapse the moment real business pressure appeared.

The Doubtful Architect

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Show me an architecture no one questions,
and I’ll show you a system no one understands.

A few years back, I walked into a post-mortem where the architecture was being blamed for everything from latency spikes to the office coffee machine malfunctioning.
The architect? Well, he was calm. Unbothered. Certain.

“It’s not the design,” he said.
“The team just didn’t implement it properly.”

There it was: the dead giveaway. He wasn’t doubting the design. He was defending it like gospel.

Right then, I knew.
The most dangerous architect isn’t the one who lacks answers.
It’s the one who never asks questions.

If you’re an architect or becoming one, doubt isn’t your enemy.
It’s your sharpest tool.

“Errorless Architecture” Is a Myth

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

errorless (adj)

Free from error, accurate, correct.
Being complete of its kind and without defect or blemish.

I stumbled lately onto a strange feeling: many of the architectures I review are overcomplicated, fragmented, full of flows jumping here and there.
And what makes it worse? The costs of development, the deployment, the running, the operations, just to keep the system alive, are astronomical.